Trump Hotel guests and those who pay top dollar to live at one of the city's most exclusive addresses — where condos routinely sell for more than $1 million — have adopted similar dodges.

"I tell people, 'I rent from a doctor,'" said one older woman, an employment lawyer who like most residents declined to give her name because she didn't want to be publicly associated with Trump. "I'm worried about a terrorist attack against the building," she added. "I wish he'd shut up."

"You know what people here say?" said another resident, a fashionably dressed older man who was leaving his valet parking spot in front of the tower in a late-model Porsche. "They say, 'I live at 401 North Wabash.'"

"Four. O. One. North. Wabash," he repeated with a smile when asked to identify himself.

The Trump Organization declined to comment, referring questions to a real estate agent who said interest in condos at the tower remains high. Just 22 of the approximately 500 units in the building are publicly listed for sale, though some have been on the market since before Trump formally entered the presidential race in June.

While Trump does not have an ownership stake in the tower's condos, he does own the hotel, and his name continues to be used in the building's marketing and, controversially, emblazoned on its side in 20-foot high letters.

Branding experts and businesspeople say it is inevitable that Trump's polarizing political rhetoric and positions will bleed into his luxury brand.

Whether or not it hurts his chances of becoming the Republican presidential nominee, being openly compared to Hitler in mainstream media probably isn't good for his business interests, they agreed.

"He's becoming more and more of a niche brand," said Tim Calkins, clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. "The Trump brand has always stood for success and wealth and luxury, and he's always been fairly loud and brash, but (his brand) is also increasingly standing for extremism and negative things. It's not clear that it will ever go back to what it was.

"People who are looking at property in the Trump Tower may think that if you stay there that it says something about you."

Trump, Calkins said, is a master at marketing, but even he will find it very difficult to rebrand himself should he not win office. "He has everybody's attention now, but people won't be so interested once the campaign is over," he said.

While some consumers will naturally be drawn to Trump's political message and it is possible to be a highly profitable niche brand, "people at the Trump Organization probably have mixed feelings about his presidential campaign — there's no question that his recent comments have been highly offensive to many people, and that isn't going to go away."

Trump's comments earlier this year about Mexican immigrants, whom he described as "rapists," already cost him deals with Macy's and NBCUniversal, which said it would no longer air the Miss USA or Miss Universe pageants it had jointly owned with Trump. A south suburban brewery, 5 Rabbit Cerveceria, also made headlines in June when it pulled out of a partnership with the Trump Hotel's mezzanine-level bar, Rebar, renaming a beer it had specially brewed for Trump "(Expletive) Tu Pelo," Spanish for "(Expletive) Your Hair."

However it was not yet clear Tuesday what the fallout of Trump's latest comments would be with Muslim businesses. His business partners in Dubai, where he is developing two golf courses, stuck by him Tuesday, saying they "would not comment further on Mr. Trump's personal or political agenda, nor comment on the internal American political debate scene."

And Reva Nathan, a high-end wedding planner who recommends the Trump Hotel's ballroom as a venue for some of her clients, said that she "tries to stay out of politics" and will continue to suggest the Trump ballroom, but that she will no longer offer it to Hispanic or Muslim couples because "it would be insensitive" to do so.

Over the last five years, about 1 in 5 of the clients she has suggested the Trump Hotel to have specifically rejected it as a venue because "they don't want Trump's name on their wedding invitation," she said.

"Probably there will be more people now that will share that view," she said, adding that Trump's comments about Muslims "do not make me happy" but also do not "cross the line" that would prevent her from doing business with the hotel.

And Chezi Rafaeli, an agent with Coldwell Banker who a year ago sold the Trump Tower's $17 million penthouse to Vistex CEO Sanjay Shah, also said he has seen no softening of demand at the building. He solicits daily for Trump Tower owners who may be looking to sell, he said. "I have no idea what Trump is saying, but I still have a humongous amount of demand," he said. "Nobody's selling — I wish they would sell so that I could sell some more units!"

Asked about concerns over the building becoming a terrorism target, he said, "If the terrorists want to attack, there's nothing we can do about that."

Matt Farrell, a managing partner at Urban Real Estate who has also sold condos at Trump Tower, said that even before Trump ran for president, the building had residents who held their noses when they closed on their condos. Such buyers are "savvy enough" to separate "Trump the brand and Trump the man," he said, adding, "it's never been my experience that his name was a draw."

He drew a parallel with Henry Ford. "Ford was a giant anti-Semite, and people still drive his cars," he said.

Multiple Trump Tower residents and hotel guests interviewed by the Tribune on Tuesday expressed similar opinions. While Trump's anti-Muslim rhetoric was distasteful to all but one of the residents — who praised Trump's willingness to "talk about the elephant in the room" after the San Bernardino, Calif., terror attack — most said that he had yet to cross a line that would compel them to seek other accommodations. Nor could most of those guests and residents say where, precisely, that line is drawn.

"I haven't really thought about that," said David Gardner, a 47-year-old engineer from Austin, Texas, who said he spends one week every month at the Trump Hotel. "I don't really take Donald Trump too seriously."